The dark side of orange: brown

Rusiñol, Montmartre Café, 1890

Brown doesn’t appear in the light spectrum: it’s just a weakened orange light, with the same wavelength, but with less intensity. As a pigment, it’s a tertiary color, or which is the same, a mixture of 2 primary colors (red and yellow) and another one, black. That’s why it isn’t shown in the conventional color wheels. It’s one of the first used colors by humans: in caves, obtained from burnt woods or dust.

Meléndez, Stil life with
chocolate dishes, 1770

It’s everywhere in nature, taken from tree trunks, in autumn folliage, on rocks… this is why it’s related to soil, comfort and security. In decoration it’s used for cosy and rustic ambients. It’s highly present in several foods: chocolate, coffee, roasted meat, tea, nuts. The brown meals give us an impression of a more intense flavour and of a high quantity of calories. So if you want what you just cooked to seem tastier, serve them on brown dishes!

It represents simplicity and humbleness. In Middle Age, it was used by the poor, beggars and servants, just because they couldn’t dye their clothes; which led them to wear not-whitened wool or linen. It’s worn by members of religious orders as way to follow the poverty vow. In Ancient Rome, the pullati, (“those with dirty or dark clothes”, in latin) were barbarian or poor, those who couldn’t pay the dye for their clothes.

However, nowadays it’s not a trendy color, simply because it’s always used: it’s easily matched with the rest of colors. Somebody wearing in brown gives an impression of sociability and kindness, but with it, originality and individuality are also lost, since it fades the other colors. We’ll never see a Queen or a celeb dressed in brown: it’s not a sign of elegance, but of daily routine. It’s the same for suits and male shoes.

Another of its negative aspects is due to its connection to comfort: it’s associated with laziness, lack of intelligence, conventionalism and traditionalism. And since the lazy ones don’t worry about the rest, brown also alludes to egoism. It also is related to excrements and dirt: to ugliness and antipathy. In it, all passions, energy and vitality disappear.

Van Gogh, Country woman
with brown coif, 1885

Suntan was a sign of poverty for many centuries, since countrymen had to work under sunshine for hours. Elegant ladies would cover themselves to keep their skins white. But after World War II this perception changed, if anybody was tanned, they had spent their holidays in Southern Europe, therefore, they could pay those holidays, and it soon became a sign of status. And later, also a proof of health.

After having read this, you now understand why you should never take brown clothes to a job interview.

Tapiès, Big Brown Cross, 1982

Welsch, N.-Liebmann, C.Chr. Farben. München, Elsevier V., 2004;

Heller, E. Wie Farben auf Gefühl und Verstand wirken. München, Droemer V., 2000;

personal notes

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